Interment systems employing a re-useable, decorative outer casket housing and concealing an inner, relatively inexpensive, interment coffin have been addressed in the prior art several times. Caskets of this type have a relatively large field of use among persons of limited means, since they lend comfort and solace to the mourners by avoiding the appearance of cheapness and drabness, while at the same time materially reducing the cost of disposition of the deceased.
In some prior art cases, the system was designed for viewing the deceased prior to cremation with the separable remains container specifically designed and constructed for cremation thereby affording a considerable financial savings to the next of kin by only cremating the remains and the remains container. In other embodiments, a combination of an outer casket with a detachable base, or an outer re-useable bottomless casket and an inner simpler casket for interment achieved a similar savings. In some cases, the latch/locking mechanism between the outer casket and the inner remains container presented visible exterior latches, mechanisms, accesses, etc., thereby detracting from the intended illusion. In another case, the interment system was designed to interact with a coffin-lowering mechanism at the gravesite to release the interlocks between the inner coffin and the outer casket, thereby requiring additional graveside mechanism. In several prior art, mechanisms interlocking the inner coffin and the outer re-useable casket rely heavily upon springs to prevent separation of the inner coffin and outer casket while being carried. Of course, as these springs may weaken through repeated use, the risk of separation of the inner coffin and outer casket increases with age. Still others employed removable/repositionable casket sides or end walls to remove the deceased and the cremation or burial container.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an interment system offering a re-useable outer casket façade and a cooperating inner interment coffin of moderate cost that does not suffer from the deficiencies of the prior art.